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One of my favorite cartoon characters here on this blog is the Chinese Dragon and its sidekick, Baby Dragon. Imagine my surprise when looking at Xinhuanet this morning, a debate just broke out in China over the status of this very same dragon!

BEIJING, Dec. 12 -- A Shanghai professor's alleged suggestion that the dragon should no longer symbolize China has aroused strong objections from the public.

"Westerners see the dragon as a symbol of arbitrariness and offensiveness. It may lead people who know little about Chinese culture to have a negative impression of the country," Wu Youfu, Party secretary with the Shanghai International Studies University, was quoted by Shanghai media as saying last week.

Though Wu said last week that the report was untrue, it has still stirred heated debate.

Ninety percent of the 100,000 people who responded to a survey on sina.com, the most popular Chinese Internet portal, said the dragon is a traditional Chinese icon and should continue to represent the country.

Experts say that Chinese conceptions of the dragon are different than Western ones.

"In Western countries, dragons are a combination of several small animals. They mainly represent evil and are usually seen as a symbol of arbitrariness and aggression," said Pang Jin, director of the China Research Center on Dragon and Phoenix Culture.

"However, dragons in China are supernatural animals that are always good and not aggressive," Pang added.

It is very interesting how the dragon's people deny the dragon its true nature. The Chinese people are most anxious to have peace. They are pretty clear about this. Peace=them making money, doing business. They are now embracing the idea (for this year) of peaceful cooperation. This is a good thing, too!

Much nicer than shooting missiles over Taiwan. Baby dragon had gotten too restive, what with shooting missles over JAPAN. So mama dragon has taken baby in hand and disciplined him. Note how he now sits on his chair, pouting, but eating his veggies like a good little boy.

The earliest known earthquake detection instrument was invented in 132 A.D. by Zhang Heng, a Chinese philosopher. The instrument was a large (2 meters or 6.5 feet in diameter) bronze jar, with a central pendulum inside. Decorating the jar on the outside were a series of dragon heads connected to a pendulum, each with a ball in a hinged mouth. Directly beneath each dragon head, on the surface of the stand, was a bronze toad, head up, mouth open to receive a ball from the dragon's mouth.

During an earthquake, the ground motion would move the pendulum and cause one or more balls to fall from a dragon's mouth into a toad's mouth. The direction of the earthquake was indicated by which of the dragon heads had dropped a ball.

The dragon is earthquakes. It is the subterranean forces that overwhelms attempts at creating order. Taming or understanding the dragon is most important. This is what court etiquette was all about. This is why the dragon of destruction and disorder was carved into the thrones of China and the cycle of about 500 years of rise and fall of imperial rule simply makes this very clear: the dragon can be confined only at great effort of will of the rulers and if they slip, the dragon emerges and creates chaos and destruction!

The phoenix is a mythical bird which consumed itself by fire every 500 years and a new young phoenix sprang from its ashes. Legend has it that the phoenix lands on nothing but the greatest treasures. It is the highest-ranked bird in China and represents beauty, good luck, the Empress, female energy, and the southern direction.

The dragon, a legendary reptilian monster, is deified in the Taoist religion and was the national emblem of the Chinese Empire. Among the Chinese people, the dragon is traditionally regarded as a symbol of creativity and good fortune, and represents the Emperor, male energy and the eastern direction. The combination of phoenix and dragon is similar to that of a yin/yang, symbolizing the union of opposites.

Creativity only happens when there is some destruction. If there is constant sameness, no one has the urge to create. The restless, probing, bored with the status quo, human forces are also destructive. If someone seeking change interfers with a system that is running along even if the system is falling apart, the forces protecting these systems will fight ferociously to not change. And if the dragon is released, change happens in great cascades!

So I am relieved the Chinese people nearly universally want to keep the dragon flying high. But I do laugh at their notion of the dragon defanged.

BAGHDAD -- I don't see a civil war in Iraq. I don't see a constituency for civil war. The vast majority of the people want hope for their families, not to massacre their neighbors or divide their country. A poll conducted in June by the International Republican Institute, a nonpartisan group that promotes democracy, found 89 percent of Iraqis supporting a unity government representing all sects and ethnic communities. No wonder no "rebel army" steps forward to claim credit for vicious car bombs and cowardly executions of civilians.

I see debates among Iraqis -- often angry and sometimes divisive -- but arguments characteristic of political discourse, not political breakdown. The Council of Representatives meets here in Baghdad as the sole legitimate sovereign representative of the people, 12 million of whom braved bombs and threats last December to vote. No party has seceded or claimed independent territory.

Baghdad Bob returns! It must be the air in the palaces on the Euphrates River that turns men into Baghdad Bob. Or maybe the water. Or maybe the food served in our embassy. Whatever it is, how do they do this? I remember how Americans made fun of Baghdad Bob.

Now we have little Pointdexter the XXX snootily saying, he sees no rebellion. Let them eat cous-cous!

I hope he comes home to make this same speech at the 25+ funerals of dead soldiers who died this last three days. He can spout this speech to the widows and crying mothers and snottily purse his petulant lips and spit it out into the eyes of little crying orphans.

Sigh. So, will Congress demand this guy's head? Will he join Rummy in retirement? Or will this crap be allowed to pass into the past and no one lift a finger to stop this clown? At least we can have him put in a mental institution for his own safety.

Aw, just arrest him for being a war criminal. Like all of these guys. And bring the troops home!!!!

And I found this bit very funny. This is Rumsfeld at work in the Pentagon.